Those look like the inner control arm hinge pins.

You're right! Mine is just the regular M03 so it has the cheap hybrid screw shaft thingie.

Nothing wrong with the stock hinge pins thingies.

Hind sight is 20/20. Thought I needed all these upgrades when I first got into mini to be competitive. Wrong.

The blue chassis is my competitive M03 mini I blinged out 6 years ago. For some reason, The less I took care of it the faster I went. Anytime any of my club mates like a good laugh they just have a look at my cars I'm running. Currently in my 5.5 turn Mod TC I have both sides C-hubs looking like "C" where the CVDs pass thru instead of looking like "O". Been like 5 months of consistent racing and they still haven't completely broken. I say it helps me stay away from the boards!

Strictly speaking chassis upgrades necessary in my opinion in a M03 are a decent diff, oil shocks and a good servo saver. For the M05 I think the aluminum steering rack would be a good thing.

Other than that work on your driving. I read a thing about Bob Stormer's consistency number. (Sorry if I butcher your definition). Basically your top 15 or 20 laps average minus your fast lap. For a beginner try to work towards getting under 0.3 seconds difference. If you're inconsistent no upgrades are gonna help you. If you're under 0.2 seconds there maybe room for improvement in setup. If you're under 0.1 seconds, that's probably all you're gonna get out of that car. I usually look at this number after a heat and this also changes my mind frame that I'm really racing against myself. I'm super happy when I'm in the 0.05-0.1 second consistency.

Bottom line get more track time!

Ivan

Question
I have the Big Bore TRF Mini shock on my M05V2
Do Tamiya make two hole piston for them?
If so what is the part number? Thanks

For some perspective on this, check out Ivans first post in this thread.
http://www.rctech.net/forum/3191698-post3775.html

I've just spend the last few weeks reading all 1770+ pages in this thread. I read it slightly out of order. I first read about Ivans bone-stock challenge, but when I started the thread from the beginning and found his first post I had to double-take on who was actually posting.

Yeah, at the end I too only needed the few things you mentioned (stiffer diff, damper set with blue and red springs, better servo saver) along with a solid servo mount and the 1 degree toe-in rear uprights on my M03. My M03's rear tended to slip out often during off-throttle turn-in, so the rear uprights greatly stabilized that.

Other then that I have the extra weights up front in the bumper and the front stabilizer. Thing drives VERY well. Oh and bearings. My near bonestock M05 needed even less parts to get it going nicely (just the stiffer MR diff, and dampers/springs only, no bearings either); will try the zip tie over factory servo saver later today.

They probably do Franko but never playing with the shocks I would still recommend a softer setup generally so 3 holes should be fine. Nice to see you running mini!

Hahaha!!!!! Now that's funny. It's hilarious reading what noobies ask what they need cause it's exactly what I asked from the start. But I learned the expensive way being told what to buy and stuff. Not saying the advice is wrong but could have save tons of money if I listened a little harder. Lol.

I use to think aluminum upgrades are the bomb but then you have to realize if you make one part stiffer, when you hit things, there is more stress on the plastic parts which may cause more breakage there. If it's all around softer, there's more give! Still the M05 steering rack is a must if you still hit a lot of things cause I keep seeing it break where the bearing seats so good investment. Thanks Gigaplex!

There use to be a very informative site rcmini.net from guys in your neck of the woods. It's no longer up but some members have downloaded the info. I think Monkeyracing might have. Lots of info but one is the funniest things I've read was an April fools post about all these mini secrets. Sounded voodoo and could possibly make you go faster but it was all a joke. See if you can get a look at that site!

Yes bearings are a must if you're racing. Same with soft front and hard rear springs on carpet. Also forgot about the weights in front bumper if you need more steering and helps with acceleration. I think I might have forgotten to do that in my stock mini. Thanks Sak!

Another tip I've found especially helpful in mini that was coined by HPRT is something along the lines of plant the rear and then work on front steering. For carpet situations (that's what I race on) I found the back end is usually very stable. Getting steering is the key in mini. Sometime instead of overly thinking about getting the most front steering (softer springs, no sway bar, more toe out, front weights in bumper, etc), why not reduce rear grip to get the same effect if you've exhausted all the things you can do to the front like (hard rear springs (white ones!), sway bar, less toe in, Kit tires, etc.).

Fun start to the day!

Ivan

The players at Tamiya Raceway often make the holes larger in the provided 3-hole teflon pistons to lessen dampening using soft springs. This affects "pack" (usually an off-road term) more than just going to lighter weight oil. Unlikely a situation exists where 2-hole would help handling.

My dos centavos...

I realized today that you can't really place a zip tie over the M05 factory servo saver..

yes
That's the reason I am going for the two hole piston getting the (Pack)
for the rear shock..

Can you paint the M-03 plastic chassis? What paint/prep would need to be used?

Thanks Ivan
Brought the new Mini 05 ver2 almost two years ago..getting to rumble with you guy

There's a download link to that site many pages back, I've got a copy and there's some good stuff on there. I'm still not convinced that the Mentos motor trick is a lie, seems legit.

Maybe you can't do it, but if Ivans reputation is anything to go by, I'm sure he can get at least 3 of those suckers on there

Yeah, there's a bump in the middle of the M05's factory servo saver spring so the zip tie slips off. I lol'ed at pictures I saw online of people super gluing their M05 servo saver together.

If it slips upwards (towards the horn) then it might still be somewhat effective if tightened appropriately. You definitely don't want it slipping the other way.